S4: E11 - Chad Hedrick (5 Time Olypic Medalist in Speed Skating / Real Estate Entrepreneur) - From Gold To Sold

Chad Hedrick Mixdown Master

Sun, Mar 26, 2023 9:15PM • 57:46

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

skating, people, skater, athlete, backstage pass, race, push, ice, olympics, sports, faster, played, chad, world, years, real estate, inline skates, laps, knew, listeners, Chad Hedrick, Champions Skate Rink, Olympics, Torino, Vancouver, Gold Medalist, Real Estate, Gold To Sold, Backstage Pass Radio, Backstage Pass Radio Podcast, Randy Hulsey, Randy Hulsey Music, Randy Hulsey Podcast

SPEAKERS

Randy Hulsey, Chad Hedrick, Adam Gordon

Randy Hulsey  00:00

I'm gonna treat you guys to a little something different today. This will be the third bonus episode I've done since starting the show back in February of 2021. Hey everyone, it's Randy Hulsey with backstage pass radio. And today I'm joined by a five time Olympic medalist speed skater, and now a successful real estate entrepreneur in the greater Houston area. And I will take you guys from gold to soul with Chad Hedrick. And we'll do that right after this.

Adam Gordon  00:28

This is backstage pass radio, the podcast that's designed for the music junkie with a thirst for musical knowledge. Hi, this is Adam Gordon. And I want to thank you all for joining us today. Make sure you like subscribe and turn the alerts on for this and all upcoming podcasts. And now here's your host of backstage pass radio, Randy Halsey.

Randy Hulsey  00:57

Chad, good to see you, buddy. How are you man?

Chad Hedrick  01:00

Doing great doing great just wrangling these kids got got three kids in the house and just just staying busy with work. And being a father and a husband. It's it's a full time job.

Randy Hulsey  01:12

I was gonna say you go to a full time job. And then you come home to another one. Right? That's right. How is the family? All the kids are good, everybody's? Well, I'm assuming you know, we I think you know, there's some members in my family that just kind of went through the whole COVID thing. Hopefully that hasn't struck your house. But everybody well, these days,

Chad Hedrick  01:34

we've been blessed to be really healthy. And, you know, been married for 15 years now. And three kids are 1312 and eight. So, you know, a lot of good times and absolutely just trying to live it up. And so come in.

Randy Hulsey  01:50

Good. That sounds great. I wanted to go back some years to Spring, Texas, other than skating growing up, talk to the listeners about other sports. Were you involved in other sports growing up as a kid and spring? Or was it just pretty much skates all the time for you?

Chad Hedrick  02:09

While I'm looking at your studio there with all these guitars and stuff? This is probably a little little different for them to hear from somebody such as myself, but we're going to try to have some fun. Absolutely. Yeah, I grew up in North Houston and my dad owned a roller rink since I was born. And so instead of hiring a babysitter, I hung out around my dad's business and my mom and dad kind of operated their business as I learned how to skate. In fact, I learned how to walk on a pair of skates when I was about 16 months old, okay, and grew up there, it was kind of a cool place to be I know, everybody remembers going to the roller rink and, and having a good time and you know, maybe getting your first kiss or you meet the girls up there, all that good stuff. That was my life and you know, out of pocket full of tokens and, and playing video games and speed skating all day. And that's that's what I love to do from a really young age. So I was kind of born into it. I had memories of, of just liking to skate fast. So we, my friends and I we just started the speed skating team at the rink. And then we started skating just at our rink there. And then started traveling to different roller rinks around Texas. And pretty soon, we were traveling all across the country. And I was able to win my first national championship, but eight years old, and man, I just love to skate. It was second nature to me and a lot of fun. Let's go along the process along the way. I had a best friend that moved from Canada, and I played ice hockey from six years old and ended up quitting at 16 to speak a full time. I also played tennis and play you know, played several sports baseball, tennis been played much golf, but I do now. I was a mover. Yeah. Well, I think you

Randy Hulsey  04:03

know, if you're that much of an athlete in the skates, you can't help but do other things growing up to you know, I mean, if you're athletic, you're just athletic. I was gonna say that. You mentioned earlier about skating this topic of conversation and real estate is a little off topic for my show for sure. But I did mention to you before but I have a couple of buddies that fight in the UFC. Actually one is a retired fighter now one is still in the UFC. And those were my other two bonus episodes that I did and they they did amazingly well like just from a streaming standpoint you know I think I think people like some variety even though I tried to keep it you know in my little niche if you if you will, but you want to plug the name of the rink up there. I'm assuming your your mom and dad still own the

Chad Hedrick  04:56

bed still own it. They've had a manager that's that's kind of me manage the facility for quite a while, but it's called skate champions. It's in spring, right in the spring Client Area. But yeah, believe it or not, people are still skating. They line up around the corner. 200 300 people for Friday and Saturday night skating session and having 3040 birthday parties a weekend, every every weekend. So it's popular. Yeah, definitely. Just as just as live as it used to be. We're just old Fuddy duddies. And we don't know it. Yeah.

Randy Hulsey  05:31

Well, you know, what's funny is that you mentioned that about growing up in the rink and getting your first kiss in the rink. I mean, I grew up at the skate and the Almita skate ranch. That was my place back in the day. And there's a guy in your family you might even know norm that owns the Bear Creek roller rink. I know. It's a small circle. But anyway, he owned the, the rink, they're down in Alameda down 45 south, but, you know, it was like, every Friday and Saturday night, that's the only place I can remember ever wanting to be was in the skate ramp. That's where

Chad Hedrick  06:07

a lot of fun, a lot of fun. Absolutely. Yeah.

Randy Hulsey  06:10

I wanted to find out if you had this crazy skating ability, just for and I know you started out really early, but or was it more something that you had to develop over time? I'm sure it was a combination of both. I don't want to I don't want to speak for you. But we'll talk a little bit about what you were blessed to do. And then what you really had to work at as it relates to skating?

Chad Hedrick  06:36

Well, I can I can kind of relate to the guitar players out there because I tried to learn how to play the guitar years ago, okay. And I picked it up. And I always liked to have the nicest equipment, the nicest, the nicest. So I know that if I work hard, anything's possible. Right? Or absolute? Well, I tried to learn how to play the guitar. I think I did it for six months, learned a couple of songs, and I just hit a plateau. I just couldn't do it. Yeah. And that kind of defines answers your question there, you can have the work ethic. And you can do it for many, many, many hours. But ultimately, you have to have the work ethic, and you have to have the skill. Sure. And in my case, I've definitely had the work ethic. And God had blessed me with with, you know, obviously a parent parents that owned a skating rink. Number one, I had access to the best equipment, I had a facility to train it. And then man, I was just blessed with this with a talent. And I knew from a really, really young age, and you know, you, you can pick up a guitar and know if you're ever gonna do something or not. It's, it's black or white. Right? Well, it's

Randy Hulsey  07:48

interesting that you say that, because I've talked to people that are local artists, some that you may have even heard of just because we're, you know, local to Houston here. And I've also had for time Hall of Famers on my show, and whether it's skating or whether it's music, these people that get to that level of musicianship, or that level of skating, or whatever the widget is, whatever the talent is, they know it and they find it at a very, very early age, right. It's not usually something Oh, well, it just happened when I was 27 years old, right? I mean, it, it starts young and it sounds like it started very young for you as well.

Chad Hedrick  08:28

Well, I can tell you, I knew I wanted to be the fastest speed skater in the world when I was eight years old. So it was, it was not a surprise that I had a road ahead of me. Sure. But I'll tell you, I'm especially in my world when you're racing people, the work ethic and the talent. But also, I mean, the determination when you're lined up against somebody, and there's, you know, 400 meters or 800 meters left, and you're looking at them and in the eyes, and you're digging deep for just a little more power, a little more stamina. That is something that was was a gift of mine, I was I was really raised that a second place was the first loser. I was a very poor sport. My dad instilled that in me, it's, it's good and it's bad. But at the same time, I wouldn't have done what I did. Unless I had that killer instinct.

Randy Hulsey  09:30

I don't disagree with you there. And I would have to say, because of your age, you must have started I have to assume that you started in quads, right? That's a safe assumption. Right? Because I think the the Rollerblade or, or what became the company rollerblade I don't think that they came. I don't think they commercially introduced the inline skate. Yeah, and so like 87 or something like this,

Chad Hedrick  09:56

to put it into perspective here. You know, I started Add on conventional roller skates at 16 months old skated all growing up competing doing all that in 1993 is when rollerblades came out inline skates and we figured out that we could skate a lot faster with those but they weren't the skates with the three or four wheels that were longer five will models that, you know, you could grip a little better and you had a bigger area to push off up to create more leverage into the ground. So you could go a lot higher speeds. And then, as we'll talk about here soon, you know, I was, I was 10 year reigning world champion from 1994 until 2003, inline skating all across the world traveled to 42 countries. But every time I told somebody what I did, nobody had a clue what I was talking about. So I had friends that had made the switch to the Olympics, and started ice speed skating. And I packed everything up here in Houston, and moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, where they had the training facility out there. And it was very, very difficult at the beginning. Yeah, but I had a choice to pack my stuff back up after a couple of weeks and go home, or really fight and I chose to fight. Within six months, I qualified for the national champion, national team, excuse me. And then for the Olympic team in 2006. I qualified for for the Olympics, and was actually able to win our first gold medal in 2006. And Torino, Italy.

Randy Hulsey  11:37

Wow, what and I want to jump more into that, but I wanted to walk back just a second. And let the listeners know, you know, I think they've picked up already that you know, you've traveled the world, you've done these things. But I wanted to let them know that you've captured 5050 World Championships, 93 us championships. And all of these, I think, correct me if I'm wrong. All of these were in the inline days. This was this had nothing to do with ice, right? It was all in line for those

Chad Hedrick  12:13

that didn't need. Yeah, so I didn't even start ice skating until I was actually 26 years old.

Randy Hulsey  12:19

Well almost got that 27 year old comment, like right on the dot. And I did earlier when I said usually don't start something at 20. So I had no idea. That's when you start Oh, there's lucky guests on my planner.

Chad Hedrick  12:30

This was what was at the end of my career, but because if you remember, I grew up playing ice hockey. Yep. And so when I put the two together, it meshed really well, because I had the initial feel of what skating on the ice was like, and then I trained my whole life and my body, and my stamina and my, my power. Everything was there. Everything made sense. I'm not gonna say it happened overnight. But within two years, which is kind of really, really fast, I was able to stay on top of the podium after switching to a new sport, which was killer.

Randy Hulsey  13:06

That's awesome. And I would I'm not going to assume anything, either. And you know, I spent a lot of time in skates both ice and inline skates myself. However, I was never a speed skater. But is it safe to say that when you go from inline to ice and you start doing this, you're training you're you're going to the Olympics, right? The technique is, is the same, right, for the most part is that safe to say or talk to me a little bit about just general technique of skating versus speed skating and regular skating.

Chad Hedrick  13:41

If you go skate at the park with rollerblades on, you can go for a pretty long distance without really getting tired. But when you go to the ice, it's a little different. Because your skate is actually inside the surface. It's not on top of the surface. So when you push, there's a lot more power that's required to go. And then there's a lot more pressure that's put on your legs, because you're actually almost, you're in a groove in the ground, basically. And so when you push you're pushing basically against a wall every time well, that's just a visual, right. And when you're on rollerblades, you're just pushing in your your feet or your feet or semi in the air, your wills are on top of the surface. So you never really get that that that that pressure. Yep, that you get on the ice. So I would say ice skating as far as a sport is much harder, physically or with your muscles. And then I would say the inline skating because the cadence of the pushes you're pushing a lot faster. It's a lot more of a cardiovascular conditioning and improves your stamina.

Randy Hulsey  14:58

Right and I would have to say too, and I think a lot of it is the science of the ice, right? If you think about it from a hockey perspective, you have to keep a building or ice surface at a certain temperature to where it sets up correctly. Because, you know, the softer the ice, the slower the game has, right, the harder the ice. So that's, that's kind of like when you exam the ice at the intermission. Usually, the game is a little faster, because that ice is set up, you got a hard surface, but once it gets all cut up, everything starts slowing down a little bit. Probably the spectator doesn't see that, right. But the players feel that in the legs, and then how much they're having to work and what they're doing. Would you agree,

Chad Hedrick  15:42

of course, when the ice gets frosty, it's harder to glide on it. But the thing that a lot of people don't really understand is, your muscles aren't as warm, you're having to warm up in a different way. You when you get going 3035 40 miles an hour on the ice, you've got this cold air hitting you in the face. It's just a completely different, completely different animal. I always say like, you said, hey, it looks the same. But you know, I say it's always like, like tennis and racquetball. Like you're hitting the ball against a wall playing racquet balls, you're hitting it over, and that is a tennis racket, but they're, they're completely different. Exactly. But they look the same, but they're not.

Randy Hulsey  16:27

When I see this many wins. You know, these championships, these world titles, I have to wonder if you were ever really challenged in it. I know you are right, I'm gonna get you to speak about this. But you hear of that many and you're like, what was the competition like was, you know, were they were they Chad's equivalent? Or was there like, Were you just head and shoulders above the competition. And the reason I asked that is, like you I had my son in skates at a very, very early age, like two. So by the time he turned five years old, and started playing hockey, he was skating around people like, like they were pylons, right, because they didn't spend three years in skates before. You know, they, they picked up a stick and tried to play hockey. Talk to me about that, like, at that eight year old age where you just like beatin people into the ground or where the race is actually close for, you

Chad Hedrick  17:30

know, I skated against great athletes. But I would say that my commitment to what I was doing from a really young age was just off the charts. It was somebody who knew where they were going, had so much fun doing it. And I think the biggest thing was, it never felt like I was working hard. It never felt like I was training, because I loved it so much. And I think on top of that, I always put so much pressure on myself to be the absolute best. If I were to lose once, I would put so much pressure on myself that it would never happen again. And like my dad told me, my dad told me growing up, he was like, not only was second place the first loser, he said, they may beat you one time, but they're not beating you twice. Yeah. And he was exactly right, because I got to a point where I was winning every time. And that was normal. But when I lost, something was wrong. Yeah. And I put so much pressure and I put the X on my back every time I went out there. And I think that's what drove me to be so. So good mix was that. I expected that out of myself every time.

Randy Hulsey  18:44

And high expectations are not a bad thing. Was any of that instilled in you by mom and dad? Or was that just a Chad? Personality?

Chad Hedrick  18:55

It was both. Both for sure. Okay, but I'll tell you, it was just the race. It was practice. It was everything that I did that revolved around skating and even even in other sports. I mean, you can't take that mentality from skating and go play another sport and be a be a pushover. You know, it's a mentality. I get it. Yeah, it kind of it kind of travels well, yes.

Randy Hulsey  19:20

Yes. I kind of liked it. Like, take a second to put your caliber of skating into perspective. So I played hockey, and I played for many years in line and ice. And I would like to think this is just me thinking out loud in conversation. If I were to line up against 100 random people for a race with and I don't skate much anymore at all right? I would have to think that somewhere between nine I would probably win I would beat 97 of those people, right? Just because they weren't at the same level as me. Then I think of some of the P Bull I played with and against. And out of those same 100 I could probably only out skate 20 of those guys from a speed perspective, right? So you can see how it it just shifted like the random public, I'm beating everybody. When you get to play in with people of your caliber, maybe 20% of American out skate. But I also played hockey with your cousin Joey right for several years. And he's a big guy, just frame wise, he was a big guy. He could clearly out skate me from a speed perspective. But then we talk about your caliber a skater is just on another is on another level, even from that, and it's hard for me to wrap my head around that. And I think it goes back to whether you're skating or a golfer, you know, you might be you might go out and shoot a 79 one day and most people would say God, Chad, you're, you're an amazing golfer. But, you know, when you start thinking of the Tiger Woods of the world and whatnot, it's like, God, I suck like these guys are on another on another planet, right? It's a crazy thought to me to kind of try to put all that into perspective, the caliber of athlete right,

Chad Hedrick  21:16

so I'm a son of a big Kobe Bryant fan, right. And he's got a show on on Netflix, actually, it's an Olympic, either Olympic or World Champion ship, show where they, they put all the best in the world together. And for some reason, a Kobe Bryant wasn't included on the first pass, or whatever, our first team the couple of years ago, or a couple of years prior to that, and they lost. And then they asked him to come the following time. And they were practicing. And then the other 10 or 12, guys would go to a bar, go to a restaurant, do this do that, like just living like, not really 100%. Okay, they're there. They're at the top and it's smooth sailing. They would always, I always ask Kobe Bryant to go do this and go to a bar, go do this. And he would talk about his schedule. And sometimes he woke up at 430 in the morning, he would train four to five times a day, while the other players were training twice a day. Yeah. And that fierce mentality. We all know Michael Jordan, but Kobe Bryant, if I look, I remember being like that and going and doing the extra things like I call it the dirty work the stuff that people don't refuse to do. Yep.

Randy Hulsey  22:46

To be great. Yes, absolutely. That

Chad Hedrick  22:49

that extra mile an hour, that extra point, 02 seconds, whatever it is. That's what it takes. And some people can do that. And it feels like training. And some people do that, because they want to crush you. Yeah. And I was the guy that wanted to crush you. Yeah,

Randy Hulsey  23:06

that's a fierce mentality, for sure. And but you have to have it at the elite level. And when you talk about putting in the work, that 10th of a second or that 1/100 of a second doesn't mean anything to somebody that's at the local roller rink, maybe in a race, but when you get to the Olympic level, that 1/10 or that 1/100 of a second means everything to you, right. And if right, would you go with I've got

Chad Hedrick  23:37

I've got a silver medal right over here. Right. That is point? 02 seconds behind Canada.

Randy Hulsey  23:44

Yeah. And those are the things that I'm sure you beat yourself completely up over that at some point in time that that two tenths of a second, right? Yeah, 202 hundredths of a second. Yeah. You know, this was this was a team event that we were in. So it was like, you know, it was three guys together, but at the same time,

Chad Hedrick  24:05

I mean, that is like, a hair. Yes. Absolutely. Oh, over, over over 3000 meters point 02 seconds is

Randy Hulsey  24:16

a hanger lievable unbelievable that the competition is that close for that long of a skate

Chad Hedrick  24:23

up? For sure. We

Randy Hulsey  24:26

I was gonna I was gonna I was gonna say we'll talk more a little bit more about the DP technique in a minute. But besides the technique, forget about the DP technique. What makes a skater faster for the most part? Does that question even make sense? I'm not sure if I even phrased the question, right, but

Chad Hedrick  24:48

faster, faster isn't always faster. Okay. That I know that's confusing. But to win a race, you don't always have to be the fastest. Okay? It could be the smartest Okay, if you're playing another sport, there's ways to work around maybe not potentially being the best. Maybe there's a guy in the NFL who's not the fastest, and he's a receiver, but he runs the best route, okay? Or he's, you know, the guy, Peyton Manning may not have the strongest arm, but he's a student of the game, right? Okay. And so for me, when I was racing people, I was always much wiser, much smarter, knew where to be, when to be there, what position I needed to be with this many laps left, you know, it was, it was more than just speed. And then when you go, when you're racing the clock, obviously, you have to be faster as well as well. But it's all mental strength.

Randy Hulsey  25:49

So to kind of say that, in my own words, that could be when you say skating smarter, that could be just where you're positioned and a turn right, tighter and a turn or wider and a turn or whatever, we're in

Chad Hedrick  26:03

second place with four laps to go. Or you're, you're avoiding the traffic to waste a lot of energy passing and, you know, messing around with all the all the other guys in the pack or whatever. Everybody's got their own strategy, but I always knew where to be, and when to be there. Sure, and always knew how to avoid like the,

Randy Hulsey  26:26

the trouble that makes sense.

Chad Hedrick  26:28

And so every sport has its own own little thing. You know, when I look at Peyton Manning, I don't think he's a great, I don't think he's got the strongest arm. But look, I mean, he was one of the best quarterbacks ever. Everybody's got their own little thing that they're great at. But yeah, for me, it's not Who's the strongest, I mean, there was guys that were way stronger than me that you know, what? worked their tails. And I was more efficient. I knew where to be, when to be there. And it's about a lot more than just just going fast.

Randy Hulsey  27:00

Sure. And you could even talk when you talk about Wayne Gretzky, somebody like that, if we relate this to an ice hockey conversation. Gretzky was not the fastest skater by by any stretch of the imagination, but he had a vision of the ice that nobody else had. He saw things that instinct and passing lanes and things like that, that people of his caliber even didn't even see. That's what made him so great. I mentioned earlier, the DP technique. This is a little bit more technical of a conversation, but I did want to touch on it. Because I do have a lot of skating friends and a lot of ice hockey buddies that will definitely listen to this. And when I say DP technique, this is short for double push. And for the listeners, the inside edges of the skates is kind of what you know where you wouldn't would generate speed and hockey and speed skating, you're kind of angling the skates. If you can picture this in the mind's eye, you're angling kind of in a V position, your feet are in a V position. And the push is is kind of where you're generating the power of the skate. Talk us through the double push tag. What does that mean? When somebody like that's just an average Joe skater? Push it, they know they have to push to get the skates going, what is a double push mean in your world?

Chad Hedrick  28:24

Well, first of all, this isn't anything I created. Okay, there's a God given talent, a God given ability and technique that I used. But I really learned how to use my body weight, and really be able to push with both feet in the same direction at the same time. If that makes sense. It can get very technical for somebody who doesn't understand

Randy Hulsey  28:48

I'm still trying to wrap my head around it to be honest with you and I and I was in skates for many years, right? So I still try to wrap my head around the whole pushing with two feet at one time. It doesn't logically make sense.

Chad Hedrick  29:00

Yeah, I mean, your body basically goes in a 45 degree angle whenever you're doing it. So you're pushing to the left, but you're leaning to the right, if that makes any sense at all, okay. And when you push with both feet at one time, rather than one foot at a time, obviously you're creating twice as much power. So the acceleration is absolutely off the charts. But you know, I don't want to sit here and confuse everybody. Sure, I can tell you this. This was a natural way that I skated. And a lot of times people use it as a crutch, to overlook my work ethic. And at times, it's really frustrating for me, because I know, I know the work that I put into my craft and I know from 16 months old, and I know how many times I've been around that roller rink and I know how many miles I've skated and I know how many, you know, I know everything that's behind it. Sure.

Randy Hulsey  29:57

Sure. So has it been adopted? Though like if people started to use that, or

Chad Hedrick  30:03

there's books all over the world of people that are speed skaters that books and videos, there's countless, countless videos, I mean, you can go on to YouTube and type in double push. And you'd be amazed at what you can find.

Randy Hulsey  30:17

Wow. Were you ever able to benchmark just how much faster the double push made you versus a conventional push? Like, were you? Did you ever say Okay, I'm gonna skate a 500 meter with just a conventional push, and then I'm gonna double push and what's the time difference? Okay, you don't? Okay? Literally, you don't? Okay,

Chad Hedrick  30:39

gotcha can tell you this. If you didn't skate with that technique, you're not gonna win. That's how, that's how much better.

Randy Hulsey  30:49

Okay, I take your word for it. I just didn't know. Maybe you haven't gone out and benchmarked that. But I was just wondering if maybe you've heard of somebody else that's ever, you know, tried to figure out how much more effective that double push really is, from a time perspective. Like, how much time are you shaving off of a race? You know, is it one second? Is it seven seconds? Like I don't like I don't know, I was trying to wrap my head around that.

Chad Hedrick  31:13

Look, I have like, analogies for sports a lot. As you can tell them, we're talking about a bunch of different sports. Everybody's got their own way to swing a bat. Everybody's got their own way to win your golf club. Everybody does it their own way. If you can figure out your way, and you can work harder than everybody else at work. I agree with you there.

Randy Hulsey  31:33

Were most of the tight most of your titles. And I don't know about speed skating. I know more in the when you got to the Olympic level, it was all pretty much long distance when you were coming up like you know, eight years old. Was it all? Was any of that kind of what we might know is short track or shorter distance, or was it always were you always a long distance skater. So

Chad Hedrick  31:54

I was always a middle of the long distance skater. So anywhere from you know, one mile to heck 26 mile marathons, I would go race marathons. and in Europe and Asia growing up. From the time I was 18 until 26 or so I was going every third or fourth weekend and traveling to you know, while my friends were having house parties at high school, I was traveling all over the world. It was a crazy life. I didn't go to my I didn't go to my homecoming. I didn't go to my prom. I didn't do a lot of stuff. And that's, that's what's frustrating knowing the stuff that I skipped to be the best. And everybody's saying it's only because of the way that you skated. That's why it's frustrating to me.

Randy Hulsey  32:41

But would you would you change that for anything now? Like knowing what you know, right?

Chad Hedrick  32:46

I have people that come up to me often and they said, Chad, we had no idea what you were doing in high school. But now we wish we would have been doing it with you.

Randy Hulsey  32:56

Right. Got it.

Chad Hedrick  32:58

So yeah, it's gratifying. Yeah.

Randy Hulsey  33:01

talk briefly about your relationship with six time Olympic medal recipient, Derek Parra.

Chad Hedrick  33:07

Yeah, so I grew up and and skated with Derek quite a bit on inline skates. He was always I think he's six, eight years older than me, I believe. And he was always the guy that that I had to be to be the best. And obviously, won won quite a bit. He won some races as well. But he, he left early to go and, and chase some Olympic, Olympic gold. And he was able to win there in 2002, in Salt Lake City after making that switch. And quite honestly, it was the reason that I was enlightened, that this was possible. And most importantly, I just wanted to tell people what I did, and I wanted them to understand. They had never seen inline skating on TV than they had no clue what it was. Right. But they watched the Olympics. And overnight when I won that gold medal, and just six minutes and 14 seconds overnight. People knew what I did. And I could tell them that I was an Olympic gold medalist. It was awesome.

Randy Hulsey  34:17

That is a political story. Because there's, you know, out of 10,000 people how many can say that they were, you know, an Olympic champion. I mean, in the Olympics, for that matter, right, let alone a medalist in the Olympics. Now you competed in 2006 and 2010 2006. They were held in Turin, Torino right outside of Milan, right. And then in 2010, they were held in Vancouver. Talk to the listeners a little bit about the Olympic experience in general and maybe give us just the high level, the 50,000 foot view of a day in the life in the Olympic village right because A lot of us will never be in the Olympics or never even come close from an athlete perspective. We might buy a ticket and sit in the stands. But that's, that's about it. But can you speak to that from a high level? What was a day in the life like for chat Hedren?

Chad Hedrick  35:14

It's a very unique situation. You've got athletes that have committed their whole life and all different sports all in one area. So the conversations that are had the friendships that are built, even the idols, some of the people that you really look up to that or with some of the larger sports, they're just Olympians with you now? Yes. I remember having lunch with Sidney Crosby, who is, you know, one of the best hockey players are currently, and maybe it could be at one point of all time, and I realized that these guys are just like us. Yeah. They just love what they do. They work hard. They're, they're the best at what they do. And it's time for them to represent their country. And just super, super cool experience. The energy that's involved, going in opening ceremonies and feeling, feeling that feeling that adrenaline. I really feel like part of the reason that I won an Olympic gold medal was because that race was the night was the night after I walked in opening ceremonies. I was on a high that couldn't it, it could not be resisted. It was It was an unbelievable experience. And one I wish I could have every

Randy Hulsey  36:42

bottle it up and have it have a little energy drink from it.

Chad Hedrick  36:47

I always say okay, and you're a big musician. All you guys are musicians. Let's say you take your favorite band

Randy Hulsey  36:54

and get to play with. Yeah, front row,

Chad Hedrick  36:57

and they're jammin and you're like, everything's tingling. And you're like, Man, I can't believe that I'm here. This band rocks, right? We'll times that by five. And that's where I was. Well, I

Randy Hulsey  37:15

was gonna say if you took your analogy one step further, right? Imagine being in the front row to that Led Zeppelin concert. And then all of a sudden they say, Chad, come on up and jam with us. That's like when the metal like that solidifies the whole thing. That's crazy. It's that's got to be a crazy experience. You picked up what was it three metals and Torino, two in Vancouver. briefly talk to the listeners about the different events that you You meddled in some were really much shorter races, but some were really long races. Talk to them about the five metals and what you want a man?

Chad Hedrick  37:54

Yeah, so I really trained specifically for three different races. But over the past two Olympics, actually skated five different races. So it was challenging, because as you would imagine, there's different training for different distances, different types of whether you're doing explosive jobs, or whether you're lifting a lot of weights, or you're doing really long bike rides to get as lean as possible, because you're doing long distance. A lot of the races just require different types of training. So for me, I was able to do really good in the long distance races, which were more, more of my specialty. But I would say my biggest My biggest accomplishment was actually in a sprint race that I had skated probably six or eight times in my life. And they put me in at the Olympics. I didn't specialize in that event whatsoever. And I was actually able to get a bronze medal in a race that I don't even skate. So it'd be like, you know, Usain Bolt tried to do a mile run. It's just sure he was not physically supposed to do that. He doesn't train him when he trains to do that. And if he went out there and did a mile and was able to get a bronze medal, it would be an absolute miracle. Yeah, sure. And so leaving the Olympics, although I didn't win, and I hated getting third. It was an absolute incredible, incredible accomplishment for me personally,

Randy Hulsey  39:32

what race was that that you're speaking of?

Chad Hedrick  39:35

2010 that 1000 meter. Okay. Yeah,

Randy Hulsey  39:40

and for the listeners that if you correct me if I'm wrong, the the the 1000 meters is basically a two and a half lap. Racecar just

Chad Hedrick  39:50

my track. My track was a school track just made the ice. So you got two laps at 800 meters and another half. There you go with 1000 meter. And it's really just full out 100% for two and a half laps and you know you're going 4042 miles an hour, there's your eyes are semi frozen your legs for the last lap are absolutely on fire. It is a really, really challenging race. And it's one that really tests your technique because your the intensity so high, that at the end, it's almost like you just can't control your legs. You're just like flailing about.

Randy Hulsey  40:33

Let me in my own words, trying to put this in perspective for the listener. So we talked about 1000 meters, two and a half laps of a high school foot, you know, a high school track, right? Imagine that. And then there is, and first of all, I'll preface this by saying I get tired walk into the top of my stairs, right? So when you talk about the 10,000 meters was the 10,000 meters. Did you ever meddle in that? Or did you ever skate? I can't remember. Exactly. So the last

Chad Hedrick  41:05

day of the 2006 Winter Olympics, got a silver medal in the 10th.

Randy Hulsey  41:12

Okay, it was the 10,000 meter. So that's 25 laps around the track.

Chad Hedrick  41:19

Too much. Wow. Just to let y'all know and, and 2008 I became the first person to skate 10,000 meters and under 13 minutes. Unbelievable. That tells you how long it is. Chad,

Randy Hulsey  41:38

I mean, let you know most people, pant walking, walking around the track 25 times let alone sprinting around the track 25 times. I mean, there's a there's a big difference in the two, right? That has to put into you that has to put in perspective, the amount of training that had to have gone into this. And maybe you don't think much about it like it was second nature to you, you were the athlete. But for the non elite athlete, that's, that's just amazing. It's hard to wrap your head around that caliber of athlete, whether it's badminton or ping pong, or table Tim, whatever they call it, curling, whatever. I mean, that level is just amazing to me.

Chad Hedrick  42:21

You know, it's harder to fathom. That I was born in Houston,

Randy Hulsey  42:26

where there isn't even any ice, right? Imagine that. Imagine that. Well, sometime between Torino and Vancouver. You marry Lindsay, you start a family 2000 What? Eight? 2009? Somewhere around there.

Chad Hedrick  42:43

Yeah, 2009

Randy Hulsey  42:46

Okay, y'all. Yeah, I was gonna say you don't have to answer because if you get it wrong, and she hears us, that's not going to be right.

Chad Hedrick  42:52

I was thinking my first first child, Hadley was actually in the stands that she was nine months old, kind of in the stands during the Vancouver Island. Okay. All

Randy Hulsey  43:01

right. So three kids now you're living north of Houston and you get into real estate. Why real estate for Chad hedger? How did the transition happen? Why not? You know, you go into sales? Why not car sales? Why not technology sales? Why was it real estate for

Chad Hedrick  43:17

you? Well, let me just tell you this. First of all, it wasn't seamless, okay. I failed many times. I got done skating. I didn't have a college degree, I'd put everything into what I did. And so I came back, or quite honestly, when everybody's putting microphones in your face, everybody's wanting to hear every word that you say. And then you come home. And your days, your days past. The minute after a couple of months of the Olympics after the after a couple months of the Olympics pass. You're a normal guy again. As a normal guy anyway, but nobody cares about what you say anymore. You're a naturally have an entitled attitude. You think everybody wants, wants to be a part of what you're doing? And quickly realized that that bubble that you were in, and that you thought everybody gave a crap? It's not that you get home? That bubble pot? Yeah. So I went into the oil and gas business. When I got home, I failed with that. I started my own skating business. I failed with that. And I had to really go through some tough times. And I think this is really common for athletes, not just athletes that make millions of dollars, but just athletes like myself, who made a great living for themselves and reached the top, but don't have that money like, Hey, I don't have to work again, right? Yep, that wasn't my case. So I had to go and find a real job. And the only thing that I could figure out is that I knew a lot of it People. And along the way, one thing kept sticking in my head was that everybody either has a home, or wants a home? Yes. Okay, so I updated in 2016. I'm on my seventh year in real estate, we have a team of 10, called the gold to sold group here in The Woodlands. And we've served over 150 families this last year. And it's been absolutely incredible. It's awesome. Let me tell you this, the most incredible thing about the whole thing was this guy from Texas, who won races from eight years old, all the way until he retired at 32, who always showed no weakness, had very few relationships that were meaningful, was always trying to get an edge on anybody to win a gold medal. manipulated, a lot of people, I was a borderline alcoholic, I was a womanizer. All of these things were going on. Whenever I was an athlete, and when I got done, I got put into a profession where I can use my work ethic, there's no doubt about that. But it's a relationship business short is. So the lack of skills that I had, and relationship building because of my, my gift that was given to me, I didn't need anybody. It was a gift and a curse, sure. But my therapy today is that I have relationships with people, because God has placed me in real estate. And every day I wake up to nurture and create relationships to help people. And how cool is that?

Randy Hulsey  47:11

I love the story, man. And I'll tell you why I love the story, you, you may not realize this, but you and I are basically poured out of the same mold. And I say that, you know, we're both hockey guys, we're both skaters, you I probably worked at the guitar a little bit more than you. But we're both aspiring musicians, right. And I'm also in sales for a living, I sell technology. And that's what I've done. I went from an engineer, from a technical guy into the sales side of the business, and I've been in the sell side for about 17 years now. And I agree 1,000% What I do, I'm not the smartest guy out there. I don't know all the technology, but I have relationships. And I have a way of building a relationship that I think some could only dream of. And my wife always Terry always says, We never go anywhere where you don't know somebody or you can talk to anybody. And I think that that's a talent, you know, or not a talent, but I think that's a gift, right? You're either an extrovert that can create relationships, or you can't. So I share that with you to say that I get it, I get your story. 1,000%. And I like, you know, you humble yourself. Like it's like, it's hard to say those things about yourself. I failed at this, I failed at that. Borderline alcoholic, not not many people want to admit those things. They only want people to see the good things. But sometimes there's an old saying you got to go through hell before you get to heaven. Right. And I think you've you've experienced that you just said it in your own words right

Chad Hedrick  48:52

now. And let me tell you that I always used to see people that were successful at what they did. And when I got to the top it changed my perspective on who I thought those people were because I knew just like sit at lunch was Sidney Crosby. He was just like me. I knew that. Michael Jordan, he's famous one of the most famous athletes in the world. He's just a real person that shot real problems. I experienced real problems and I think everybody needs to hear that we're so fixated on this. This idol mentality people with money, people with power have perfect lives. And you know what? It couldn't be any further from the truth. I think probably my worst year professionally, financially, was actually one of my best. Yeah.

Randy Hulsey  49:54

Because you learn some you learned a lesson from that right that you didn't ever want to be there again. My name

Chad Hedrick  50:00

chili, and I'll never be there. Yeah,

Randy Hulsey  50:03

that's a that's a great mindset. And then sales, you know, as well as I do, we're gonna have up years we're gonna have down years, but if you have that mentality, you know, you can't help but succeed in some way you can't help but succeed. And I was gonna say real quick I love you know the tagline for the real estate business gold to soul. Did you come up with that? Can you take credit for that? Or Did somebody else give you the idea?

Chad Hedrick  50:28

There was actually originally it was from gold to soul. But we, my wife came up with the whole thing. And we changed it to gold, the soul group, I believe it or not, like, even starting out in real estate, I had magazines and, and radio shows and stuff wanting to talk to me about my transition into real estate only because of my name. Okay. Only because of the name of my company. Sure. Right. And

Randy Hulsey  50:56

because it was so unique. Yeah. Love it. Yeah. Fan.

Chad Hedrick  50:59

So yeah, it's, it's been incredible. We're doing really well. But when I look, when I look at my business, the most fulfilling thing is that there's people that work around me. And what we're building, as a group is providing for many, many families. That's awesome. I couldn't be happier about it.

Randy Hulsey  51:22

Well, you kind of went from an AI mentality to oh, we mentality, right as a as a skater, you're kind of an individual contributor there. And in sales. A lot of times we are individual contributors. But you said it best, you know, you're part of a great real estate group and you can't, you can't work in something and be successful without a great team of people behind you. Even though you might be the facing person for that client. There's still a lot of stuff that goes on in the back office. That has to happen, right? Oh, man. Yeah. And that can be a whole nother follow up podcast, we can talk about the whole gory details of real estate. But tell me real quick what your group do you guys specialize in a certain in this. I'm not a real estate guy. So I preface my question by saying this, but but but do you guys focus on commercial residential, like, what do you focus on in the gold so we

Chad Hedrick  52:18

focus on residential real estate, so anywhere from like, interlude all the way to? Probably Huntsville? Okay, we've got a team of 10. So we've, we've got a pretty big, pretty big area to cover. But like I said, we served 150 families this year and, and nearly doubled our business over the past 12 months. So we're very, very excited to be able to continue to grow. And yeah, if anything, anybody out there that's looking for some help. We'd love to be able to help out I'm guarantee that you'll have a great experience with us.

Randy Hulsey  53:01

Tell the listeners or what can you tell us about the Chad Hedrick Foundation,

Chad Hedrick  53:08

the Chad Hedrick Foundation, over the past 15 years, we've raised over half a million dollars for Special Olympics, we've done work with specific officers from HPD. And the sheriff's department done work with United Way. And we've also done some work for a foster care organization called Love fosters hope, man, it's always good to give back. It really is. It's not just a saying either. Because when you really realize that pumping yourself up, does nothing internally that it's not fulfilling once once you understand that, that's not who you are anymore. And you come to the realization that the world The world is about something way beyond yourself. And when you learn that, and I didn't know that for a long time. Once you get there, you'll never go back so that you're able to impact through your hard work through the gifts that you're given through a lot of things, changing lives is is wonderful.

Randy Hulsey  54:25

I agree with you and I and I think sometimes it you know, it just takes some a little longer than others to mature in that thought process. And

Chad Hedrick  54:35

you know, you could be 58 You could be 32 like me you could be 16 I don't some people mature quicker than others. Some people have a realization of who they are quicker. EQ I knew I knew I wanted to be the world's fastest skater at eight years old. There wasn't a lot of people that thought that you know, but it doesn't matter how old you are. There's a time and a place. I agree. And you know what given to those less fortunate is definitely ranked right at the top.

Randy Hulsey  55:04

Yeah, I agree. I think you might have mentioned this earlier. But where can the listeners find the real estate group online? If they wanted to go look up the company? Where would they find you?

Chad Hedrick  55:15

Yeah, you can go to gold to soul.com. That's our website. Or you can call me at 866383 Gold.

Randy Hulsey  55:27

Perfect. Chad, listen, thanks so much for being here and chatting with me. I know, we've been kind of back and forth trying to figure all this out. But I really appreciate the time. It's been a pleasure to go off topic, you know, from music and, and talk about a world that so many, especially here in the south don't know much about right ice skating this and skate and that it's just not you know, everything's football and baseball, as you well know. But I think it's a great conversation. And I think even more so. It, it paints a picture that, you know, there is life after life after certain things right and your case, you know, being a world champion and going into a whole new line of work and you're successful doing that. That's kind of what the podcast is all about just painting a positive message. And you know, I have a great story, man, I appreciate you sharing it with with me and the listeners.

Chad Hedrick  56:30

Well, it was wonderful chatting with you, and I certainly appreciate your time as well. I'll check out the show in the future.

Randy Hulsey  56:38

Yeah, for sure. As always, I asked the listeners to like, share and subscribe to the podcast. Also, make sure to follow Chad on all the social media outlets including gold to soul.com. You can find us on Facebook at backstage pass radio podcast on Instagram at backstage pass radio, Twitter at backstage pass PC, and on the website at backstage pass. radio.com Thank you all for tuning into the show. And we'll see you right back here on the next episode of backstage pass radio.

Adam Gordon  57:09

Thanks so much for joining us. We hope you enjoyed today's episode of backstage pass radio. Make sure to follow Randy on Facebook and Instagram at Randy Halsey music and on Twitter at our Halsey music. Also, make sure to like, subscribe and turn on alerts for upcoming podcasts. If you enjoyed the podcast, make sure to share the link with a friend and tell them backstage pass radio is the best show on the web for everything music. We'll see you next time right here on backstage pass radio